Memories
by IHaveNoLife17
Summary: When Kai tests an invention of Jay's that's supposed to let you view old memories, something goes wrong. It both de-ages him and steals years of memories to the point where he's mentally only 12. (Drat, there's another lame summary) *the thing at the beginning is not as random as it may seem*
1. Chapter 1

_The teenager went in for a punch, and a 12-year-old Kai winced, thinking of the bruise he'd later have to lie about to his mother and Nya. He wasn't sure how well he could defend himself against someone only a few years short of being twice his age, but he thought he should at least try. He balled his fists and swung them upward, aiming for the guy's face. The older boy screamed and Kai gasped, his mouth a perfect O. His hands were on fire! The young man had taken a few steps back, cursing and covering both his chin and his lip. From what Kai could see through his fingers, his skin was red and already starting to blister._

_"How the f*** did you do that?!" he demanded._

_"I-I don't know! I didn't mean to, I swear! I'm sorry!"_

_"You better be, you little-"_

_"Daniel!" It was Mrs. Anderson, the kid's mother._

_"My stars! What have you boys been doing?"_

_"He did it; he made his hands catch on fire!"_

_"What have you been doing with those new friends of yours?! I knew they were a bad influence! You expect me to believe -Kyle, is it?"_

_"Kai."_

_"Sorry, sweetie, it's nothing personal. I'm bad with names, that's all. Tell me, is he drunk or high?" Mrs. Anderson asked, changing her tone to a much sweeter one._

_"Uh..."_

_"I'm not on drugs, Mom! Kai and I were just playing pretend, isn't that right?"_

_"But what happened to your face?"_

_"Er..."_

_"I saw a lighter on the ground, only I didn't know what it was, and I picked it up. Dan tried to take it from me cause he said it was dangerous and it turned on somehow and..." Kai trailed off, but Mrs. Anderson didn't need to hear anything else. She took her son to a hospital for his burns and called Kai's mom so she could pick him up (and of course to tell her what happened)._

* * *

_His chin was covered in white scars. When Dan approached Kai, his first thought was that Dan wanted revenge._

_"Stay away from me or I'll burn you again!" Kai bluffed, even though he had no clue how he had done it the first time and was nowhere near being able to control it._

_"Gees, kid, I just wanna say thanks."_

_"Thanks? For what?"_

_"For making up that story about the lighter. My mom would've grounded me until I graduated if she thought I was doing drugs."_

_"I_ _was saving my butt as much as I was yours. What if she'd believed you about what really happened?"_

_"You don't know my mom at all. She's like, no nonsense and cut the crap."_

_"Okay..."_

_"So how badly were you punished?"_

_"Not that bad, actually. Mom's giving my DS to my sister for who knows how long."_

_"Why isn't that bad? You play that thing all the time."_

_"It's kinda a long story. Nya almost took it apart-"_

_"Why the hell would she do that?"_

_"I think she wanted the parts for one of her robots."_

_"Robots?"_

_"Don't tell me you've never seen Nya's robots! They're awesome, she makes 'em herself out of- Hey, why do you care all of a sudden?"_

The screen went black, and the small compartment which Kai was in started to smoke.

"Jay! Do something! Get him out of there!" Nya shouted to him.

The lightning ninja hastily went to open the door, but as soon as he did, a boy with messy brown hair about 10 or 11 years old stumbled forward out of it.

"Why is Kai a kid again?!"

Without his signature spikes, Jay hadn't recognized him at first. Now that Nya had informed him who it was, he could see the resemblance. For one thing, he remembered the scar splitting one of Kai's eyebrows in two.

"What do you mean, again?" The boy was ignored as Jay and Nya started arguing.

"I want an explanation! Where am I, why am I here, and why am I wearing clothes 20 sizes too big?!" he shouted, pushing up the sleeves of his ninja gi, which immediately fell back down again. He tried a few more times before giving up and instead focused on making sure his pants didn't fall down.

"You never told me you were being bullied," Nya said to her suddenly-younger brother now that they had gone silent.

"I'm not being bullied! And if I was, why would I tell a stranger?"

"It's me, Nya."

"What was the name of the stuffed animal you slept with until you were 6?"

"Huh?"

"If you don't know the answer I guess I don't believe you."

"I know this, just let me think for a second... It was a blue rabbit?"

"Named?"

"Mr. Fluffles."

Little Kai burst out laughing. "Sorry, I just wanted to hear you say that. Alright, sis, why are you suddenly way older than me?"

"Chit-chat is not going to help him," Wu said, preventing any explanation Nya would've given. "I suggest you visit Mystake for some Tomorrow's Tea. You should hurry, though, her shop closes at 8."

"Couldn't you go get it for us?" Jay asked.

"I did not cause the problem." And with that, the old man walked out and went to his room.

"Jay, try to fix the machine to give Kai back his memories. I'll tell the others what happened and see if Lloyd still has anything that might fit Kai."

Jay nodded and turned towards his machine.

"Kai, come with me." This whole experience was weird, and if she could help him get it over with, he'd gladly do whatever she said. He followed her down the hallway and waited as Nya went in through one of the doors.

"Something went wrong with Jay's machine!" she told the three ninja inside.

"Big surprise there," Lloyd said sarcastically, not even looking up from his comic book.

"Do you even care about what happened?"

"Does it affect me?"

"I don't know. What do you think?" Nya pushed Kai into the room while he protested.

"Is that Kai?" Cole's eyes went from the boy to the spot where Nya had been standing in the doorway, but she was gone.

"According to my facial recognition software, the answer is yes."

"Facial recognition software? What are you, a computer?"

"You mean you don't remember Zane?" Cole asked incredulously.

Kai shrugged.

"Alright, let's ask Jay about all this."

When the four went back to the main room, they found Jay worriedly looking at something on his laptop. "Oh man oh man oh man oh man!" the lightning ninja muttered, "I screwed up big time!"

"Um... Are you okay?..."

"Of course I'm not okay! Liketenyearsofhismemoriesareonmyflippingcomputerandtheyshouldbeinhisheadanddon'tevenaskmewhyhe'sphysicallyten!"

"Jay, calm down. You're talking so fast we can't understand you. Tell us what happened from the beginning."

"You know how I've been working on a machine to let you look through your old memories?" Cole nodded and gestured for him to continue. "I finished it this morning. Kai tried it out because he couldn't remember where he left the keys to his bike, but we saw a totally unrelated memory from when he was like 9. Then the thingy started smoking and Nya shouted at me to get him out of there, but when I did he was little like he is now. He didn't recognize me or Nya until he quizzed her-"

"I asked her one question! You know, something only the real her would know. Geez, you try waking up in a world where your little sister's years older than you."

Cole rolled his eyes. "Go on."

"Nya planned on telling the rest of you what happened, but only a minute ago she left to get some Tomorrow's Tea. She looked a little mad, now that I think about it. Just now I found a million files on here that I didn't recognize. When I opened some of them I realized they were Kai's memories. Okay, done."

"You've been all over the place with my age. You've said 8, you've said 10, but just for future reference, I'm 12."


	2. Chapter 2

[a/n: I posted this in the morning before school, and when I got home I had 19 emails just from Fanfiction. First time I've ever seen it say that many unread. (Mainly because I check my inbox about every 5 minutes. Can't do that at school.) Anyway, thanks to everybody who reviewed, followed, &amp; favorited!]

"Where's Nya?"

"Are you sure it's not still messing with his mind?" Lloyd commented, "Jay just said where she went a minute ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Kai said sarcastically, "I got distracted trying to wrap my head around how the heck my so-called memories could be on a laptop!"

"Trust me, we're all confused by that," Lloyd told him.

"Hey, Kai, what happened after Nya tried to take apart your DS?" Jay suddenly asked, earning a confused look from everyone but Kai.

"How do you know about that? And if you really care, she couldn't find her screwdriver. Mom's such a jerk, she'd have let her do it if she had the stupid tool. She'd say, 'It's your own fault; you shouldn't have played with a lighter,' when I didn't really- Crap!"

"Why would your mom think you played with a lighter?" Cole asked, raising an eyebrow.

When Kai nervously stared at his socks (Jay guessed that his shoes were still in the compartment, too big to stay on his feet), the mouth of lightning decided he should answer. "He used his powers accidentally and burned a bully named Dan."

The 12-year-old's eyes widened, his expression a mixture of surprise and anger. "How in the world do you know this stuff?! I didn't even tell Nya about that! And what makes you think Dan's a bully? He used to pick on me sometimes, that's not- You're really creeping me out right now."

"He hit you in the one Nya and I saw. And you hit him back... What do you even call that?"

"Self-defense, ever heard of it?"

"Right, because self-defense consists of punching someone with your fist on fire?"

"I was mad, I hit him back, I didn't even know it was on fire until- dang, I feel like I've explained this a thousand times already. I got enough grief about it from Dan yesterday... At least I think it was yesterday."

"Probably wasn't."

"Didn't the guy with the straw hat say 'chit-chat won't help' earlier? And something about tea for tomorrow?" the boy said, in an attempt to change the subject.

"He said tomorrow's tea, Kai," Jay corrected.

"So? That still means the same thing, right?"

Cole sighed. "Tomorrow's tea is a tea makes you older."

"Dang! Tea can do that?"

Lloyd laughed.

"Welcome to the future, kid," the blue ninja jokingly told him.

"Wait, how in the world could tea make you older?"

"You ask too many questions," Jay decided.

"It is normal for children to frequently ask questions. It is one of the simplest methods of learning." [a/n: does that sound a little off? Cause it kinda does to me.]

"Thank you, uh...robot..."

"We never told you Zane was a-"

"I'm 12, not stupid. 'Face recognition software'? What normal person has that? I mean, no offense. I haven't got anything against robots."

"He's a nindroid," the lightning ninja grinned.

"Isn't the term android?"

"It is. Nindroid is ninja and android combined."

"Ninja?"

"Dang, this'll take a while," Lloyd whispered, sighing as Jay attempted to tell Kai about everything from their elements to the Overlord.

"What's the rush? Do you have somewhere to be?"

"Nah, I'm just bored."

"Kai's a kid again and you're bored? This is gonna be funny."

"You're right! We should mess with him."

"That is definitely not what I said."

"Well, it's what I heard."

It was things like this that reminded Cole and the others that Lloyd was technically still a child, disguised by the added years of a certain tea.

"We are not gonna pick on Kai," Cole said firmly.

"No problem. We is now just an I." Cole gave him a weird look, though he was curious about what exactly the green ninja had in mind.

"Kai?"

"Yeah?" he looked away, relieved. Jay was starting to get boring, considering he already knew most of the story he was being told on Ninjago's origins.

"Listen, the reason Jay knows so much about you is because you were part of a government experiment. They've been watching you to see how well you could fit in with society. Since you hurt someone with your powers, they had to bring you back to headquarters."

"Lloyd!"

"Ignore them! They just don't want you to know the truth!"

[a/n: I can't decide if Kai believes him. What say you? (Idk why, but I really wanted to use that term.) Also, I cracked my screen trying to eat a donut. Schist, there's that randomness only some people find funny. ]


	3. Chapter 3

[A/n: Throw tomatoes at me, stone me, hate me, it's been 2 months since I updated. I have an excuse, but I'll tell you at the end of the chapter so people who don't care can skip it. Oh, and I don't get why this is my most popular fic when there's a million other fanfics just like this out there. Look up "Act Your Age" by AwesomeAuthor13 and/or "The Young One" by Ms. Rhianna Grayson-Wayne. And this one's old, but the "Child's Playagain" series by PowerInPink. None of them asked me to promote their stories, by the way. Anyway, it ticks me off when my other stories I've actually put time into and used my imagination to make an original plot are ignored because... who knows why?! WTF, people? I suppose if I make a dare one too that'll get 50 followers, huh? Sorry, I'm done.]

(Cole's POV)

"Is that true?" Kai asked, looking up at the inventor.

Why does he trust Jay, of all people?!

The blue ninja exchanged looks with Lloyd, grinning. Oh, crap. "Yes, it's all true! Lloyd, how could you?"

Just for the record, Jay's acting is terrible, but little Kai seemed to believe him. He took a step away from the two older ninja. Then another. And another. Before I knew it, he was gone.

"We lost him, didn't we?"

"Way to be an optimist, Lloyd!" Jay exclaimed sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm back with the Tomorrow's Tea! Where's Kai?"

[A/n: And I'm still mad from my rant, so short chapter. My excuse: me and my friends have been considered putting their OC's in there to kidnap Kai. Note to self: quit proudly showing them every time I get a good review...]


	4. Chapter 4

"You lost my brother?!" Nya repeated.

"Not necessarily!" Jay exclaimed, "We haven't looked yet!"

"You lost Kai and didn't bother to even look for him? I know boys can be dumb sometimes, but really?"

"No, you got it all wrong! He disappeared like a second before you got here!"

"How'd this happen in the first place?" The samurai was surprisingly calm as she looked at Cole for answers. Scary calm, the earth ninja thought.

"I don't know, why don't you ask Lloyd?" the leader said in an accusing tone.

The golden ninja suddenly found his shoes very captivating as he nervously admitted, "I kinda-sorta told him he was a government experiment."

"Lloyd! Okay, that is kinda funny, but still... Lloyd! Go look for him!"

The green ninja raised his arm to salute, shouting, "Yes, ma'am! " before he ran off in the direction he'd thought Kai had gone.

"I'm gone 10 minutes and this happens?" Nya sighed.

"I was not a part of this!" Cole exclaimed, taking a step away from the lightning ninja.

Jay sported a surprised yet annoyed look on his face before shouting that it was Lloyd's idea.

"Don't blame Lloyd, I already yelled at him."

The blue ninja took a bunch of small steps towards Cole and whispered in his ear, "Why is Nya acting like our mom or something?"

Cole shrugged and Jay moved back to his computer the same way he came.

"You know I saw that, right?"

"Why are you acting like this? "

"The old lady at the tea shop wouldn't let me buy the Tomorrow's Tea because she said I'd already bought it within the last year. I had to argue with her for what felt like 20 minutes before telling her our entire situation!"

Lloyd suddenly appeared in the entrance of the hallway. "He's not in the bathroom, bedroom, or closet," he told them.

"Then look in other places."

The golden ninja nodded and ran towards the deck.

Just then someone's phone rang.

"I should see who that is," Cole said, his hand going to his pocket and pulling out a phone. "Blocked number. Think I should answer it?"

Jay said he should at the same time Nya said he shouldn't.

"Nya, I ain't scared of some mysterious person on the other end of the phone. Let's do this!"

[a/n: semi-cliffhanger. I'll be surprised if I still have readers after the last chapter. *sigh*]


End file.
